WELLINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand will fund conservation efforts to help protect two critically endangered native species found nowhere else in the world, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The funding will help create safe backup populations for Hamilton's frog and the white-bellied skink, both of which are at serious risk of extinction, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said in a statement.
Under the program, 200 Hamilton's frogs will be transferred to new breeding facilities at the Auckland Zoo and Orana Wildlife Park. The species' main wild population has declined by about 80 percent, and the program aims to produce more froglets to support recovery in the wild, Potaka said.
Unlike most frogs, Hamilton's frog lives in native forest rather than ponds, does not croak, and breeds on land. Males guard the eggs and young. The species can live for up to 45 years.
The funding will also establish a protected population of the white-bellied skink at Orana Wildlife Park. Fewer than 100 of the lizards are believed to remain in the wild, with only three tiny wild populations known in Canterbury of the South Island, the statement said. ■
